Spotify Counters Criticism From Radiohead’s Thom Yorke

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich took several albums off Spotify over the weekend — a move they describe as a “rebellion” against the streaming-music service for the way it pays artists. They publicly aired their criticisms on Twitter.

“Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will [not] get paid,” Yorke said in one of the tweets. “Meanwhile, shareholders will shortly [be] rolling in it. Simples.”

At our request, Spotify swiftly responded in an email to Mashable about royalty payouts:

Spotify’s goal is to grow a service which people love, ultimately want to pay for, and which will provide the financial support to the music industry necessary to invest in new talent and music. We want to help artists connect with their fans, find new audiences, grow their fan base and make a living from the music we all love. Right now we’re still in the early stages of a long-term project that’s already having a hugely positive effect on artists and new music. We’ve already paid US$500M to rightsholders so far and by the end of 2013 this number will reach US$1bn. Much of this money is being invested in nurturing new talent and producing great new music. We’re 100% committed to making Spotify the most artist-friendly music service possible and are constantly talking to artists and managers about how Spotify can help build their careers.

Artists, labels, distributors and other music rights holders earn royalties from Spotify based on the number of times users listen to their songs.

“For example, we will pay out approximately 2% of our gross royalties for an artist whose music represents approximately 2% of what our users stream,” Spotify says on a Q&A page about its business model. “A popular song or album can generate far more revenue for an artist over time than it historically would have from upfront unit sales.”

In January, The New York Timesreported Spotify pays “0.5 to 0.7 cents a stream (or $5,000 to $7,000 per million plays) for its paid tier, and as much as 90% less for its free tier.”

Other music companies have faced heavy criticisms, too, regarding claims that musicians make little or no money from streaming services. In response to royalty concerns, Pandora founder Tim Westergren late last year detailed the amounts certain artists make, saying “revenue stream is meaningful.”

“For over two thousand artists, Pandora will pay over $10,000 dollars each over the next 12 months (including one of my favorites, the late jazz pianist Oscar Peterson), and for more than 800 we’ll pay over $50,000, more than the income of the average American household,” he said. “We’re talking here about the very real possibility of creating, for the first time ever, an actual musicians middle class.”

Regardless of these reassurances, Yorke and Godrich expressed the view that payment methods need to evolve. For now, Yorke’s solo album,The Eraser, and the duo’s Atoms for Peace’s album, Amok, will no longer be available to stream on Spotify and Rdio. Godrich plans to also pull his band Ultraista‘s newest album. Here’s a look at their thoughts on Twitter:

Anyway. Here’s one. We’re off of spotify.. Can’t do that no more man..Small meaningless rebellion.

11 Tips and Tricks for Spotify Power Users

1. Discover New Music

For Spotify power users, it isn’t enough to play the songs you already love. There are a number of ways to discover new music as well.

Try various discovery apps, such as We Are Hunted, Pitchfork, Hype Machine and Blue Note. When you like particular bands, check out “Related Artists” on their artist pages, and check out Spotify’s “What’s New” tab for new music every Tuesday.

You should also use the Radio function for stations, based on a song, artist, album or even a playlist, and tailor your preferences with likes and dislikes.

2. Collaborate on Playlists

By switching a playlist to “Collaborative,” you have the option to share it with friends, and then they can add songs to it, too. To do this, right-click on a playlist and check “Collaborative Playlist.”

3. Listen to Music Offline [Premium]

For Spotify Premium users, you can download playlists to listen offline, which is extra handy for long subway rides, the gym and other places that don’t have a good Internet connection.

4. Check Play History and Top Lists

You can check your play history by selecting “Play Queue” in the left-hand toolbar, then toggling to “History” at the top. You can also select “Top Lists” under Apps, and see what you listen to most by choosing “for me.”

5. Use Advanced Search Modifiers

Similar to Google, you can use certain search modifiers and operators to make your search more advanced. For example, by typing “year:2000-2005,” you can find all kinds of songs between those years, and even make it more specific (e.g., “genre:electronic”).

6. Organize Playlists in Folders

If you find that you have dozens of playlists and your toolbar is starting to get a little convoluted, get organized by sorting your playlists in folders. Simply click File > New Playlist Folder, and rename, drag and drop as needed.

7. Import mp3s From Your Computer

Spotify has a pretty expansive music database, but you might not find everything you’re looking for. Import your iTunes library to have all of your tunes in one place. To do this, go to File > Import Playlists, and follow the directions. Depending on how many songs you want to import, this could take a little while.

8. Embed Songs Online

It’s really simple to share the songs you like on your blog or website. All you need to do is right-click on the song you’re interested in and copy the embed code.

9. Link to a Specific Part of a Song

If you’d like to share a specific point of a song with someone (one minute in, for example), right-click on the song, click “Copy HTTP link” and affix to the URL the time at which you’d like the song to start. See the screenshot for the example “#0:32.”

10. Change Privacy Settings Permanently

Since your Facebook and Spotify accounts are most likely linked, you might run into some trouble: for example, you listen to a ton of One Direction and your Facebook friends publicly mock you.

Instead of entering a private session every time you use Spotify, go to Preferences, then go under “Activity Settings” and uncheck both share settings listed below “Privacy.”

11. Find Song Lyrics

If you’d like to learn the lyrics to any songs you just discovered, there’s no need to look them up elsewhere on the web. The TuneWiki app brings up the lyrics within Spotify, while your song is playing. Just find it in the App Finder and click “Add.”